Part 3: Project 2006 Polaris Sportsman 500EFI: Front Diff Disassembly cleanup and Inspection

Complete step-by-step disassembly cleanup and inspection of the front differential of my 2006 Polaris Sportsman 500 EFI

[@mathewmeyeres1941]

It’s a good video very helpful working on getting mine back together my sprag is cracked and losing pieces. Where did you find your replacement sprag? Old video 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@blazerguy1971]

In another video in this series I replaced the oem with an aluminum sprague. I ordered a Smadmoto kit from Amazon. It came with the aluminum Sprague, armature plate, bearings and clips. It was around $150 CAN. Well over 1000 miles on it and it is still running strong.

[@wiggy8884]

I got the same quad 450 sportsmen 2006 and something is grinding in the front and this could be what it is

[@blazerguy1971]

There is a good chance. Grinding could be a cracked sprague/cage assembly.

[@addictedtexasoutdoors6246]

Thanks for the video, my Ranger diff looks just like this inside, full of mud and gunk. I now have hope it will live again..

[@blazerguy1971]

Fingers crossed!

[@addictedtexasoutdoors6246]

@@blazerguy1971 Worked amazing and made it thru long wet deer season with no problems. Thanks for the video!

[@rickhalverson2252]

They recommended this video to me. But I'm going to give you a common sense gift Yes.... A little common Sense goes a long ways. Why are you welding on the shaft? You need to heat the outside casing to expand :( If you don't have a torch just use a heat gun on the casing.. it will expand and your bearing will slide out. You don't want to heat the inside. Why would you want to expand the inner shaft? that makes no sense. It's shocking. You heat to expand things. Don't heat the inside because it's already stuck, Heat the outside. For example, the ring gear of a car's flywheel is held on simply by heating up the ring gear and putting it on.. it contracts as it cools. The same thing with radial engines and crankshafts. And a thousand other things. Don't heat the inside, have you lost your mind? 😢

[@blazerguy1971]

I appreciate the response. Yes common sense goes a long way, as does the ability to watch, listen, and learn from the mistakes of others or even yourself. I hope you managed to get some useful information at least. As I said in the video, around the 13 min mark, I hit the bearing race with the welder, not the shaft. The race expands with the heat and frees it from the shaft. The shaft was not touched, other than slag spatter, which cleaned up easily. The bearing was sloppy and it was -10 deg in my small workshop that day. I used what I had available, many people don't have a welder at home either. It was a quick and dirty way to get the job done. A torch would be preferred, as it would have helped with the rust, but I didn't have one. Since that video I have put over 2500 miles on the bike, in some pretty extreme conditions, and it is still working great. Zero issues since. As I stated in the video series on a few occasions, I am not a mechanic. My videos are not monitized. At that time, I just figured that I would do a rebuild video project to keep me busy during the lockdowns of the pandemic to keep my sanity and hopefully help a few people out in the process. :)

[@chriskilla247]

What part did you replace Because my front Drive shaft is moving

[@blazerguy1971]

Excessive play on the cv axles and driveshaft requires bearing replacement inside the front diff. The front driveshaft/propshaft does have some play in it anyways at the front u-joint, but the pinion shaft itself should not.

[@ImReallyThatGuy]

did you have the re-assemble of this Front Diff?

[@blazerguy1971]

I am hoping to get that posted in the next little while. The quad is done, but I haven't had a chance to get the video edited. Thanks for watching.

[@jesserousseau2481]

My question is. How do you let it get this bad?

[@marecooley7]

What were the symptoms that led you to repairing this diff? I have two of these diffs (made by Hilliard) in a one-of-a-kind ATV--one in the front and one it the rear. The rear one is not wired and drives the ATV normally and the front one can be switched on or off as needed. The problem with rear one is that the drive line will turn but the wheels will not until it seems to catch and then the wheels will turn.

[@blazerguy1971]

There were a few things that happened prior to me tearing the diff apart. I noticed that when in AWD in mud or snow, the front end used to slip, or engage and disengage. I thought it was electrical at first. Then eventually one side would grab and the other would not do anything, with a lot of creaking noises. I drained the diff fluid and found a lot of dirt and water... and that led to tearing it apart and doing the rebuild. Bearings and seals were shot, and as I found out after, so was the armature plate and the sprague.

[@conspiracymyass6742]

Observations

[@scottmurray9706]

Was it a factory rebuild kit you bought? If so, do you know the number?

[@blazerguy1971]

I was originally going to get a rebuild kit but read a lot of bad reviews on the cheap bearings failing in these kits. The bearings can be purchased separately at the dealer for a tremendous cost. I brought all the old bearings, bushings and seals to our local SKF industrial bearing supplier and they matched everything up. It cost me about $110 Canadian, but the SKF bearings will probably outlast the quad.

[@blazerguy1971]

(2x for CV Outputs) SKF Explorer 6008--2RS1/C3, (1x for pinion shaft) SKF Explorer 6306-2Z/C3, (1x Between the 2 CV Outputs) KOYA NTA-815;PA:L125, DMR Oil Seal 40527-DL DAE, the other oil seal I don't have the number in front of me. BTW these are sealed bearings and I left the seals on them, but they can be removed.